Conventional electric bread toasters are devices configured to simplify the toasting of bread slices or other generally flat food items. These toasters generally comprise an upright housing having rectangularly shaped toast-receiving slots defined in the top surface of the housing. Bread slices are inserted through these slots and rest on a spring-biased bread carriage inside a toasting chamber. In this loading position, the bread slices are held partially within the toasting chamber and are allowed to project partially from the slots to facilitate the loading and removal of the bread slices. The toasting chamber is surrounded by electric heating elements. A manual toasting lever connected to the carriage allows the user to push the carriage toward the bottom of the unit, thereby lowering the bread completely into the toasting chamber. Typically, a solenoid device holds the carriage and lever in this toasting position and a microswitch circuits power to the heating elements. When the toasting cycle is completed, the solenoid releases the carriage and the spring returns the carriage to the loading position.
These conventional toasters do have shortcomings, however. Most significantly, when the toasting of comparatively small bread slices or other smaller food items is desired, such items may be too short to project from the toasting slots when the carriage is in the loading position. Thus, a user may be forced to insert his or her fingers, or an object such as a fork, into the toasting chamber to retrieve the toasted bread slices. This may lead to burns from the hot heating elements or even electric shock from contact with other hazardous electrical components within the chamber.
These shortcomings have been addressed in various patents in the industry. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,662 to Yip discloses an electric toaster having a pair of interengaging brackets to allow a bread carriage to be positioned in a first toast-removal position and a second toast-removal position higher than the first position. U.S. Pat. No. 5,095,814 to Ott et al. discloses a toaster having a toasting rack and a separate lift device to elevate the rack relative to the carriage. The mechanisms disclosed in these patents require two-handed operation, however, in that the user must hold the bread carriage in the second toast-removal position while removing the toast from the toaster. Furthermore, the mechanisms disclosed in both of these patents utilize many parts arranged in a complex fashion. These mechanisms therefore add significantly to the manufacturing cost of the units.
Therefore, there is a need for a toaster that allows smaller bread slices to be removed more easily by the user without the implementation of complex and costly bread-removal mechanisms.